Shamefull Barn Find - 3 Games Saved - Sort of...Kung Fu Master, Joust and Space Dual

divingbuddy

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Shamefull Barn Find - 3 Games Saved - Sort of...Kung Fu Master, Joust and Space Dual

I found these games about two years ago. The guy thought they were in super great condition and wanted way too much for them. They were being stored outside next to a shed, with just a partial roof for cover. Weeds were growing up through the cabs, mouse droppings everywhere. They guy selling the games fired one of them up and it actually worked back then, that was the Kung Fu Master. It did play but the back was missing. I decided not buy the games because the guy said he was going to move them into his house and fix them up.
So.....jump ahead two years later, or just last week to be exact. I was going through some of my junk post-it notes and I find one that has the name of a guy selling 3 games and his number. A wild thought ran through my head, I wonder if that guy ever did fix up those games? I decided to give him a call.....and guess what? He still had the games, had not sold them, he left them still sitting in the same location, and this would be over two years.
I wondered what kind of condition they are in now and even if they would work. I made him an offer sight unseen, $50.00 for all three. He actually wanted quite a bit more than that back then. He thought for a moment, and says they have been sitting there all this time and they were more than likely not working now, and falling apart. He accepted my offer! I could not get there fast enough. The guy was not home, but his son helped me load the games into my truck. The first one was Kung Fu Masters, the second was Silk Worm and the third was Ataxx. All Jamma games, but for $50 bucks you can't go to wrong? Right?
Well, when I got them home and I off loaded them with the help of my cousin the arcade game addiction-enabler. My wife was just shaking her head and laughing as we packed them in the driveway. I plugged in the first game, Kung Fu Master, flipped the power switch on and looked for fire and smoke to come billowing out of the cab....the game came on, monitor crackled and went into attract mode....holy Sh%#....we coined it up, pushed the player one and two buttons and started to play the game. Now for the Silk Worm, we plugged it in, flipped the power switch, the monitor crackled, the screen came up blue with just the one and two player score on the top of the screen and that was it, partially working PCB and working monitor. The third game, Ataxx was DOA. The monitor energized but the PCB did not fire up.
The Kung Fu Master is restorable, the Silk Worm was installed in an original Joust cab and the Ataxx was converted from a Space Dual.....Oh the humanity.....I peeled off the side overlay that was glued over the original cabs....It truly was a sad sight to see. The original games would have been a great find, but two of them are so badly water, corrosion, rust and weather damaged to save.....so the parts will help restore my other project games.
 

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More pics.....
 

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I only had to go about a mile from my house on a couple of side streets, they were strapped in the bed pretty good. Going slow and steady.....savoring the moment till I got home and had to tell my wife the good news about my latest finds.....
 
I would like to say that is a great find but unfortunately.....no. It was more of a rescue/salvage operation. One tormented soul saved, two more laid to rest. Hell of a lot better than them sitting there rotting some more. That Joust art would be pretty nice if the cabinet had not been outside. Looks like you two new Joust wall hangings and two new Space Duel wall hangings for the garage/shop/arcade.
 
Same thing happened to me and jayleone, we drove an hour to look at a Paper Boy, Champion Sprint and a Dynamo cab this guy had on CL and said they were is good shape and hard to find cabs. We got there and he had them sitting in the lawn since last fall with a fucking tarp over them. The wood was swelling and the monitor chassis were rusted over. He wanted $150 a piece for them until I plugged in the Champion Sprint and the pcb started smoking. He said they were inside for more of the time but moved them outside to make room because he was cleaning out the house. When I slid a the Paper Boy over to look inside to check the condition there was a ring of leaves around the cab from last fall. The Champion Sprint fell apart on itself when I opened the coin door!

We got him down to $50 a cab and still passed because they were too gross to load.
 
The mouse droppings were so bad in the coin box, in the bottom of the cabs and even behind the marquees. Then add in the spiders......reminded of my kids hamster cage that had not been cleaned in weeks, and then multiply that by a couple of years.....
 
Some people are amazingly stupid. I can't understand anyone treating a machine this way and yet thinking its still valuable.

My friend saw a Dig Dug siting outside a barn in a small town near here. He stopped and asked the owner if it was for sale. It had obviously been sitting outside for years. The owner of course wouldn't sell because it was worth so much more than offered. What a maroon.

 
I used some of the parts from the hacked Space Duel cab to put together my Gravitar......
 

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